Photos show how Seattle’s favorite businesses vanished after Amazon showed up — and it could be an omen for the HQ2 city

Construction in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood, the home of Amazon's headquarters.Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
In the past two decades, Amazon has grown from a startup birthed in Jeff Bezo's garage into one of the world's largest tech companies.

In the late 1990s, the online-retail giant planted its first headquarters in Seattle, Washington, where it now employs 40,000 people and spans 8.1 million square feet.

Amazon's presence has fundamentally changed the city, according to Cynthia Brothers, a 36-year-old Seattle native. In recent years, she has noticed that coffee shops, grocers, restaurants, and bars beloved by locals are increasingly shutting down to make way for upscale redevelopments.

Brothers — and many urbanism experts— argue that Amazon's rise has contributed to the closure of independent retailers, along with rising housing prices, increased traffic, and constant construction.

Seattle's gentrifying landscape inspired Brothers to launch Vanishing Seattle, an Instagram account that documents longstanding businesses that have shuttered. The photo project reveals a potential future for the city Amazon picks to house its new headquarters, called HQ2.

Brothers began Vanishing Seattle in 2016.

Her first post was a video of a drag queen named Atasha, who performed Dream Girls’ “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” on the closing night of Inay’s, a longstanding restaurant and bar.

Brothers describes Inay's as a popular institution that served as a hub for Seattle's Asian-American and LGBT communities.

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Inay’s closed due to a rent increase — something that has become increasingly common as Amazon becomes bigger in the city.

A man stands on a plaza on the Amazon campus, Thursday, April 27, 2017, in downtown Seattle.
AP

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Since 2000, the area has added 99,000 new jobs, with 30% of them in tech, contributing to a construction boom. As Seattle’s largest property taxpayer and private employer, Amazon has continued to spur an influx of high-skilled tech workers.

Other startups have come to Seattle to ride out the tech boom.

The city’s building stock has struggled to keep up with demand, contributing to higher rent prices. As a result, some longtime residents and businesses in lower-income neighborhoods have been driven out.

Near Amazon’s headquarters in South Lake Union (a neighborhood called "Amazonia" by locals), the Hurricane Cafe was recently bought and demolished by Amazon. The company plans to build two office towers in its place.

Greenlake, a closed bar in Seattle.
Vanishing Seattle

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Nearby, a 50-year-old bar called 13 Coins closed on January 1 to make way for redevelopment. A few weeks prior, the Two Bells Tavern met the same fate.

Two Bells Tavern, a closed bar in Seattle.
Vanishing Seattle

Two Bells' closure "hit people hard," Brother said.

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Brothers says displacement is happening not just in Amazonia, but in neighborhoods across Seattle.

As a Seattle native, Brothers fears that the city will continue to lose its staple institutions.

Referring to Amazon’s campus, she said the company “constructed an artificial neighborhood."

The Felix Building in Seattle.
Vanishing Seattle

"People don't hang out after work or on the weekend. And what's there now? A West Elm and fitness club that costs $200 month. It's a cultural wasteland," she said.

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“I worry about where the counterculture is going to go,” Brothers said. “Because the counterculture was Seattle’s culture. We need to create a city that’s not just about tech, convenience, consumption, and disruption.”

Drag queen Atasha performs "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" on the closing night of Inay's, a former restaurant and bar in Seattle.